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- FL: Violation of knock-and-announce statute doesn’t require exclusion
- TX3: DUI blood draw while in restraint chair not 4A unreasonable
- TX1: Def has a duty to make his record on PC and the SW; missing affidavit was on him
- N.D.Ala.: SW not invalid because issuing judge previously represented the target
- The Guardian: ‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Category Archives: Probation / Parole search
DE: A probation search that didn’t comply with the probation laws couldn’t be used in a criminal proceeding
A probation search that didn’t comply with the probation laws couldn’t be used in a criminal proceeding. Walker v. State, 2019 Del. LEXIS 88 (Feb. 21, 2019). The record doesn’t show that defendant’s plea was conditional, so there is no … Continue reading
CA11: When information in a SW affidavit comes from an illegal source, it is purged; here, PC remains
Excising that which was allegedly illegally obtained from the affidavit for this search warrant, probable cause still remains. United States v. Fleur, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 4899 (11th Cir. Feb. 20, 2019). There was no independent probable cause for the … Continue reading
D.Minn.: A narrative affidavit for SW is hardly “outrageous conduct” to seek to dismiss indictment
Obtaining a search warrant with a narrative affidavit, inter alia, is hardly outrageous governmental conduct warranting dismissal. United States v. Ortiz, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17455 (D. Minn. Feb. 4, 2019).* Plaintiff’s excessive force claim against a probation search which … Continue reading
CA2: Def parole officer gets QI on whether 4A or NY case law applies to parole search
Plaintiff was subjected to a parole search, and he contended New York law applied rather than Samson et al. The officer gets qualified immunity on the question because it appears Samson should but we don’t even need to resolve it. … Continue reading
CA7: Exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of federal supervised release
The exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of federal supervised release, applying Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole v. Scott, 524 U.S. 357 (1998). United States v. Phillips, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 2799 (7th Cir. Jan. 28, 2019). CSLI … Continue reading
CA3: Municipal officers may execute federal PV warrants
Defendant was ID’d as a likely suspect in a bank robbery, and a federal probation violation warrant was issued. Municipal officers may execute federal probation violation warrants. “See, e.g., United States v. Polito, 583 F.2d 48, 51 (2d Cir. 1978); … Continue reading
NJ: GPS monitoring of sex offender still on supervision is reasonable under “special needs”; one not on supervision is not
Two sex offenders sued over their GPS monitoring. The state defended under the special needs doctrine. GPS monitoring of SO still on supervision is reasonable, but it is unreasonable as to the one off supervision. H.R. v. N.J. State Parole … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No standing in an email account def didn’t open and disavows
Defendant has no standing in an email account that was opened by somebody else that he disavows is even connected to him. United States v. Lewis, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202501 (S.D. N.Y. Nov. 29, 2018). Reconsideration of prior denial … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Probation search of place probationer was merely visiting unreasonable
A person on supervised release was subject to a search condition of his residence. That did not include places he was visiting. Search of his backpack suppressed; a search warrant was required to even enter the premises of a third … Continue reading
IN: A search waiver condition “without a warrant and without probable cause” still requires RS
A search waiver condition “without a warrant and without probable cause” still requires reasonable suspicion. Jarman v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 445 (Nov. 30, 2018). Window tinting that covered the back window brake light was a traffic violation justifying … Continue reading
TX1: No REP in a contraband cell phone in a halfway house
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a contraband cell phone possessed by a sex offender in a halfway house. The phone was subject to search like any other personal property, and defendant had a prohibition against possession of … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Supervised release search of home unreasonable because govt lacked PC he lived there
The government argued that a person on supervised release had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his own apartment, which the court roundly rejects. Yet, the government lacked probable cause to believe that defendant was residing in the home at … Continue reading
QI for probation searches
People For the American Way: Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears: Two Trump Circuit Judges Rule that There is No Remedy for a Violation of a Homeowner’s Privacy Rights by Elliot Mincberg discussing this case: CA6: Officer spent 90 minutes at plaintiff’s … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Raising a search issue 5 months after conviction is a little too late
Defendant’s suppression argument five months after conviction is too late. Besides, it doesn’t allege anything of substance anyway. United States v. Alahmedalabdaloklah, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 189719 (D. Ariz. Nov. 6, 2018).* Defendant’s search claim is denied without even telling … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Probation search of a cell phone is permitted under the search condition for searching “personal effects”
A probation search of a cell phone is permitted under a provision in the search condition for searching “personal effects.” United States v. Ard, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187125 (E.D. La. Nov. 1, 2018). There’s no evidence that NCMEC’s search … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Federal criminal complaint supported PC for DNA sample
A federal criminal complaint can satisfy the probable cause requirement for a DNA sample. United States v. Mercado-Gracia, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182458 (D. N.M. Oct. 24, 2018). Defendant’s term of probation permitting searches of his residence includes temporary quarters, … Continue reading
IN: Backpack of arrested motorcyclist was subject to SI
Defendant was stopped on a motorcycle and had a backpack. An arrest warrant was found for defendant, and his backpack was subject to a search incident. State v. Crager, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 385 (Oct. 25, 2018). There was no … Continue reading
NJ: Officer had RS def was armed; refusal of patdown justified exigent strip search at station house
The officer had reasonable suspicion that defendant was armed, and he attempted to perform a frisk, which defendant refused. This led to a warrantless strip search which was justified by the Fourth Amendment exigency exception and by state statute and … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Def had no REP in a stolen travel trailer
Defendant had no expectation of privacy in a stolen travel trailer that was found and searched that wasn’t his. United States v. Deckert, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178036 (E.D. Tex. Oct. 10, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178038 (E.D. … Continue reading